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[Start of the chapter]
Night had fallen over the Sabaody Archipelago. Ronan and his group were on their way back from the Marine base to their hotel in 50GR.
Beth was carrying an inconspicuous little suitcase in her hand; inside was the bounty they had just collected.
"Not even two hundred million… still not enough. A single Devil Fruit at auction can go for three hundred million Berries."
Ronan immediately recalled what Shakky had said earlier about Supernova pirates coming to find him. Right now, Ronan couldn't wait for those pirates to show up in front of him.
Just as he was thinking about it, the dense crowd around them suddenly erupted into screams and shrieks, people fleeing in panic to both sides. The street became empty in an instant, leaving only the four of them standing in the middle of the road.
"Clatter, clatter, clatter—"
Messy footsteps echoed from the alleys ahead, behind, and to both sides. More than a hundred pirates poured out, armed with all sorts of weapons and wearing vicious expressions, surrounding Ronan's group in the center.
Seeing this scene, Ronan's eyes lit up. He had just been wondering why the pirates looking for trouble hadn't shown up yet—and in the blink of an eye, they walked right to his doorstep.
As the retreating crowd parted, three figures stepped out, their auras clearly much stronger than that of the common crew.
The one in the lead wore a flashy captain's coat and had long purple hair. He was one of the Supernova pirates currently in Sabaody: Kudris.
On his left stood a tall, lanky man holding a dagger; on his right, a burly man hefting a massive spiked club on his shoulder.
"Zzz—" The purple-haired captain grinned, baring his teeth as he looked at Ronan's group. "Yo! Looks like our luck's pretty good. We really ran into the 'heroes' who 'took down' Golden Lion!"
He slapped his chest and loudly introduced himself, voice booming: "Listen up! I'm 'Black Panther' Kudris! My bounty is 120 million Berries!!"
At the same time he pointed to the lanky man and the big guy beside him. "These are my right-hand men: 'Poison Fang' Lodfis, bounty 45 million! 'Giant Hammer' Kaski, bounty 50 million!"
He flaunted their bounties, expecting to see shock or fear on the other side's faces.
However, he was disappointed.
When Ronan heard that string of bounty numbers, his golden eyes visibly brightened. He completely ignored what the guy's name was, and instead subconsciously muttered under his breath,
"One hundred twenty million… forty-five million… fifty million… that's a total of two hundred fifteen million…"
Kudris: "???"
The pirates behind him were dumbfounded as well. That reaction… was all wrong!
Shouldn't they be trembling at their captain and officers' fearsome reputations and huge bounties?
Why was this brat over there doing math?!
Kudris' face instantly darkened. He felt utterly insulted.
"You little brat! Scared stupid, huh? None of you are leaving here today!"
His body leaned forward slightly, muscles swelling. Black spots surfaced on his skin, and his pupils narrowed into vertical slits.
"Zoan-type, Cat-Cat Fruit, Black Panther form!"
"So this is the power of a Devil Fruit?" Teresa watched Kudris' transformation with keen interest. She could clearly feel that in this form, his presence had grown much stronger than before.
"Rrrroar—!"
With a low, bestial roar, Kudris didn't give Ronan's group any time to react. He charged straight at them, swinging his hands that had turned into razor-sharp claws.
Seeing their captain's transformed appearance, the surrounding pirates screamed in excitement, all eagerly picturing the scene of Ronan's group being torn apart by their captain.
As Kudris lunged, Beth shot forward, stepping out to directly intercept him.
The moment Beth appeared in front of him, Kudris was momentarily surprised, but he had no intention of wasting such a good opportunity.
"Swish!"
His claws sliced toward Beth—but they didn't even touch a single strand of her hair.
Kudris' pupils shrank violently, sirens blaring in his mind.
What speed!
But Beth's counterattack had already arrived.
She simply raised her left hand, spreading her fingers and clamping down on Kudris' other clawed hand.
"Boom!"
The instant Beth's palm made contact with Kudris' claw, his whole body jerked as if he'd slammed into a solid wall.
Beth didn't give him any chance to breathe.
Her left hand, still gripping his arm, yanked downward. At the same time, her knee drove hard into Kudris' abdomen!
"Guh—ah!"
The searing pain made Kudris instantly drop his beast form. Beth released him and, in the same motion, brought the edge of her hand down in a chopping strike to the back of his neck.
"Thud!"
The Supernova with a 120-million-Berry bounty, "Black Panther" Kudris, didn't even last three moves before collapsing to the ground like a dead dog, completely unconscious.
It all happened far too quickly. From the moment Kudris launched his attack to the moment he hit the ground, only two or three breaths had passed.
"Captain!!"
"You bastards! How dare you!!"
Lodfis and Kaski, shocked and furious, attacked at the same time, trying to snatch their captain back from Beth.
Beth, however, didn't pay their attacks any mind. Compared to Kudris, these two were even weaker.
In short order, Kaski and Lodfis both fell at Beth's feet as well.
At that moment, the surrounding pirates finally understood how overwhelmingly strong Beth was. They scattered in every direction, fleeing for their lives, not sparing a single glance for their captain lying at Beth's feet.
That was the nature of pirates—when real danger came, everyone only cared about themselves.
Ronan, however, had no intention of letting these pirates go. In his eyes, this bunch clearly lived on pillage and slaughter, guilty of every imaginable evil. He signaled Beth that she didn't need to hold back and to eliminate all of them.
Ten-plus minutes later, the Kudris Pirates—who had once terrorized the first half of the Grand Line—were officially wiped out on the Sabaody Archipelago, leaving only the unconscious Kudris and his two officers at their feet.
Looking at the three unconscious men, Ronan did some quick calculations in his head.
"Add these three in, and the total passes three hundred forty million… The auction money should be covered now."
With that thought, Ronan felt very satisfied.
He didn't bother going back to the hotel. Instead, he dragged the three members of the Kudris Pirates straight back to the Marine base on the Sabaody Archipelago.
The sentries at the gate were already terrified enough to see Ronan's group return so soon. But when they noticed the three figures Ronan was dragging behind him, they couldn't help rubbing their eyes.
Kudris had left a very deep impression on the Marines stationed here.
None of them could have imagined that Ronan had barely left and was already back with a Supernova from the first half of the Grand Line in tow.
The Marine major in charge on-site was shocked, of course, but still quickly processed and handed the bounty money over to Ronan.
The news of the Kudris Pirates' annihilation spread through the Sabaody Archipelago in no time. The fact that Ronan had taken Kudris and his men to the Marine base to cash in their bounties also reached the ears of every interested party.
Kudris was no weakling. Any pirate with a bounty over one hundred million in the first half of the Grand Line was regarded by the Marines as extremely dangerous.
Yet a pirate like that wasn't even a match for Ronan's bodyguards.
No one dared to target Ronan anymore.
At that point, everyone more or less reached the same conclusion: Ronan was specifically hunting pirates.
All the remaining Supernova pirates hiding on the archipelago went completely still, not daring to make a move.
(End of Chapter)
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